Join us at this two-day workshop as we explore eighteenth-century letters from the collections of the Revere House and the Massachusetts Historical Society! Teachers will learn more about the importance of letters as a communication tool in the eighteenth century, as well as their importance as historical sources today. Participants can also try their hand at writing letters using eighteenth-century technology and conventions and transcribing letters written by members of the Revere and Adams families.

Participants can earn 12 PDPs by attending both days of the course and writing one lesson plan, or One Graduate Credit (equal to 22.5 PDPs) from Framingham State (credit pending) by paying an additional fee of $75 and completing a more extensive project.

Registration Fee: $80. Includes course readings, morning snacks and one lunch. To Register: Please complete this registration form and send it with your check (payable to the Revere House) to:19 North Sq., Boston, MA 02113.

Morning Sessions:Letter-writing in the 18th century: Who wrote letters and why?

Reading Between the Lines: What do surviving Revere letters tell us about the family? Small groups work together to note information gleaned from original and transcribed Revere family letters. A short tour of the Revere House is included to see a few Revere written items on display. Staff reveal the recent discovery of a missing Revere letter, how it came to light and how it has since been conserved.

Afternoon Sessions:Your turn: Try your hand at transcribing eighteenthcentury letters from the Society’s collections. After working in small groups, participants can share their own challenges and successes.

A Life in Letters: What does the correspondence between Abigail Adams and her husband and sisters tell us about life in the late eighteenth century? Participants will examine a series of letters in order to create a sketch of Adams family life at the time of the American Revolution.

Recently scholars have pointed out links between the 1636-1637 Anglo-Indian conflict known as the "Pequot War" and the 1643-1645 Dutch-Indian conflict known as "Kieft's War." This paper unpacks the larger historiographic implications of seeing the two wars as tandem events, and viewing New England and New Netherland as part of a single contested region.

For much of the 20th century, Charles E. Wyzanski, Jr., the presenter's father, engaged the leading individuals and intellectuals of his time and left his imprint on a surprising number of them. While a first-year law student in 1927, Wyzanski received a handwritten note from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, in which Holmes hoped that whenever Wyzanski's work "seemed to present only mean details, he might realize that every detail has the mystery of the universe behind it and keep up [his] heart with undying faith." Wyzanski did just that until his death in 1986, influencing to a remarkable degree the legal, political, intellectual, and moral life of his times.

In Cape Cod, Henry David Thoreau describes using an early MHS publication as a sort of antiquarian travel guide -- a way of looking back on the landscape he traversed as it had been described almost 50 years earlier. What did the founders of the MHS set out to print and what have later generations made of our early publications?

The Object of HistoryA series of chats with MHS Librarian Peter Drummey about what documents and artifacts from the collections can tell us about the characters, events, and issues of the past, as well as the role of MHS in documenting the rich history of our state and nation.

Join us at this two-day workshop as we explore eighteenth-century letters from the collections of the Revere House and the Massachusetts Historical Society! Teachers will learn more about the importance of letters as a communication tool in the eighteenth century, as well as their importance as historical sources today. Participants can also try their hand at writing letters using eighteenth-century technology and conventions and transcribing letters written by members of the Revere and Adams families.

Participants can earn 12 PDPs by attending both days of the course and writing one lesson plan, or One Graduate Credit (equal to 22.5 PDPs) from Framingham State (credit pending) by paying an additional fee of $75 and completing a more extensive project.

Registration Fee: $80. Includes course readings, morning snacks and one lunch. To Register: Please complete this registration form and send it with your check (payable to the Revere House) to:19 North Sq., Boston, MA 02113 by 31 January 2013.

Morning Sessions:Letter-writing in the 18th century: Who wrote letters and why?

Reading Between the Lines: What do surviving Revere letters tell us about the family? Small groups work together to note information gleaned from original and transcribed Revere family letters. A short tour of the Revere House is included to see a few Revere written items on display. Staff reveal the recent discovery of a missing Revere letter, how it came to light and how it has since been conserved.

Afternoon Sessions:Your turn: Try your hand at transcribing eighteenthcentury letters from the Society’s collections. After working in small groups, participants can share their own challenges and successes.

A Life in Letters: What does the correspondence between Abigail Adams and her husband and sisters tell us about life in the late eighteenth century? Participants will examine a series of letters in order to create a sketch of Adams family life at the time of the American Revolution.

In 1909, Elizabeth Lowell Putnam formed the Massachusetts Milk Consumers’ Association with the intent of tackling what was then known as “the milk question.” Using the MMCA as a case study, this paper argues that Boston milk reformers’ understanding of the new science of bacteriology fundamentally shaped their perceptions of the relationship between the rural environment, the food city dwellers consumed, and the health of human bodies.

Author Talk, Public Program An Evening with Margaret Fuller in Italy13 March 2013.Wednesday, 6:00PM - 7:30PMThis event is SOLD OUT.Megan Marshall and NewpoliPart of the "New Books/New Looks: Revisiting the Past" seriesPrize-winning author and MHS Fellow Megan Marshall will read from Margaret Fuller: A New ...

Prize-winning author and MHS Fellow Megan Marshall will read from Margaret Fuller: A New American Life, her biography of the 19th-century heroine who spent her last years in Rome and Florence as a war correspondent covering the early stages of Italy’s Risorgimento. How should we remember this period in Fuller’s life, particularly given the scandal of her love affair with Giovanni Ossoli? Folk ensemble Newpoli will conjure the vibrant music that Fuller came to love as emblematic of Italy. Ms. Marshall is the author of The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism, winner of the Francis Parkman Prize, the Mark Lynton History Prize, the Massachusetts Book Award, and a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Newpoli performs southern Italian folk music from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.

New Fellows and Members Reception & Tour14 March 2013.Thursday, 6:00PM - 7:30PMSpecial event for new MHS Fellows and MembersNew Fellows and Members are invited to a special reception and tour to learn more about the MHS and ...

New Fellows and Members are invited to a special reception and tour to learn more about the MHS and its collections. For more information, call 617-646-0543. RSVP required.

Public Program, Exhibition “Our Fanaticism”: Garrison’s Antislavery Banners15 March 2013.Friday, 2:00PM - 3:00PMExhibition SpotlightAnne Bentley, Massachusetts Historical SocietyCurator of Art Anne Bentley will examine the nature and use of our set of William Lloyd ...

Curator of Art Anne Bentley will examine the nature and use of our set of William Lloyd Garrison’s banners, displayed circa 1840s to 1850s in local fairs and demonstrations sponsored by the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

This paper explores the paradox of bodybuilders such as Atlas espousing eugenics principles while highlighting their own allegedly innate weaknesses as a marketing strategy for their diet and exercise regimens. It also argues that both techniques functioned as assimilation strategies for the immigrant and ethnic bodybuilding community at a time when the U.S. was less than hospitable to foreigners.

Join us for a panel discussion featuring Carla Kaplan, who will talk about her forthcoming book on white women in the Harlem Renaissance; Diane McWhorter, who will discuss the civil rights struggle and the growth of the military-industrial complex in postwar Alabama; and Lois Rudnick, who will reflect on Mabel Dodge Luhan and her circle of friends in New Mexico.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Public Program, Author Talk Writing with Scissors: 19th-Century Activists & Their Scrapbooks27 March 2013.Wednesday, 6:00PM - 7:30PMPre-Talk Reception at 5:30 PMEllen Gruber Garvey, New Jersey City UniversityPart of the "New Books/New Looks: Revisiting the Past" seriesMen and women 150 years ago grappled with information overload by making scrapbooks—the ...

Men and women 150 years ago grappled with information overload by making scrapbooks—the ancestors of Google and blogging. Mark Twain and Susan B. Anthony, abolitionists and Confederates, African American janitors and farmwomen cut out and pasted down their reading. Professor Garvey will discuss these various perspectives, covered in her recent book Writing with Scissors, including the findings she uncovered while doing research at the MHS. All scrapbook makers passed along their understanding that the press was not a simple record, but a set of voices and conversations.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

This case study focuses on how Americans understood the workings of the natural world as they imperfectly made gunpowder for the Continental Army. It argues that paying attention to the interactions between humans and the natural environment leads to a richer understanding of the war, and that modern American attitudes towards the environment have important roots in the Revolutionary period.

Reading private letters and journals, this book-in-progress investigates personal responses to Lincoln’s assassination, encompassing Union and Confederate, black and white, men and women, soldiers and civilians, rich and poor, the well-known and the unknown. What can these responses to such a cataclysmic event tell us about the aftermath of the Civil War, and what can we learn about understanding a transformative event on a human scale?

Prof. Stauffer’s lecture on Thursday evening will open a conference that will consider almost every major aspect of Massachusetts’ participation in the war: reform activities and the origins of the war; military life; the war, politics, and the economy; slavery and emancipation; and how the citizens of Massachusetts came to terms with the consequences of the conflict. It will feature established scholars as well as up-and-coming historians who will tackle new areas of emphasis, including the radical intellectual tradition, health and the environment, and the memory of the war.

Conference papers will be made available in advance to those who preregister. In six sessions on Friday and Saturday, panelists and commentators will offer brief remarks; a discussion with the audience will follow. Registration fee required to attend sessions. Registration available in late 2012. For information, contact kviens@masshist.org.

Prof. Stauffer is a member of Harvard’s English Department and the chair of the university’s graduate program on the History of American Civilization. He will speak on the contribution of the Bay State’s black and white abolitionists and political leaders to secession, freedom, and equality under the law. He will also discuss briefly how the state responded to the "counter-Revolution" that stripped away these new rights after Reconstruction. This lecture and the reception that will follow will be free and open to the public. This program is also the keynote address for the MHS conference Massachusetts and the Civil War: The Commonwealth and National Disunion.

Prof. Stauffer’s lecture on Thursday evening will open a conference that will consider almost every major aspect of Massachusetts’ participation in the war: reform activities and the origins of the war; military life; the war, politics, and the economy; slavery and emancipation; and how the citizens of Massachusetts came to terms with the consequences of the conflict. It will feature established scholars as well as up-and-coming historians who will tackle new areas of emphasis, including the radical intellectual tradition, health and the environment, and the memory of the war.

Conference papers will be made available in advance to those who preregister. In six sessions on Friday and Saturday, panelists and commentators will offer brief remarks; a discussion with the audience will follow. Registration fee required to attend sessions. Registration available in late 2012. For information, contact kviens@masshist.org.

The search for a heterogeneous menu of game animals allowed northeastern Indians a flexible pattern of winter mobility. After 1704, however, English soldiers patrolled Indians’ winter hunting grounds, interfering with native reliance on wild animals. Political ecology—how power affects people’s access to routes and resources—mattered more than environmental degradation to the fate of the winter hunt on the Maritime Peninsula.

Brown Bag Child Soldiers in America10 April 2013.Wednesday, 12:00PM - 1:00PMFrances Clarke, University of SydneyChildren aged seven to seventeen made up a significant portion of the American military until ...

Children aged seven to seventeen made up a significant portion of the American military until recently. This project, co-authored with Rebecca Jo Plant (UCSD), aims to study the relationship between childhood and militarism in American history, tracing debates over the enlistment of minors from the Revolution to the modern era and analyzing shifting representations and experiences of child soldiers.

Public Program, Author Talk Defiant Brides of the American Revolution10 April 2013.Wednesday, 6:00PM - 7:30PMPre-Talk Reception at 5:30 PMNancy Rubin StuartPart of the "New Books/New Looks: Revisiting the Past" seriesHow did the marriages to Benedict Arnold and Henry Knox change the lives and personal development of ...

How did the marriages to Benedict Arnold and Henry Knox change the lives and personal development of their brides, Peggy Shippen and Lucy Knox? Nancy Rubin Stuart’s talk reveals the contradictory paths two young women followed subsequent to their passionate marriages to patriotic men during the American Revolution and the early Federal era. Using historical correspondence and historical drawings and portraits, Ms. Stuart will shed light on how these defiant brides affected the course of the Revolution. Ms. Stuart is an award-winning author and journalist who specializes in women and social history.

Special Event, Member Event Historical Happy Hour10 April 2013.Wednesday, 7:30PM - 8:30PMSpecial event for MHS Associate MembersMHS Associate Members are invited to the second Historical Happy Hour. Following the talk by Nancy ...

MHS Associate Members are invited to the second Historical Happy Hour. Following the talk by Nancy Rubin Stuart, we will continue the conversation while enjoying a cocktail at The Back Bay Social Club located at 867 Boylston Street.

Associate Members and their guests will receive priority admission to the program as well as complimentary appetizers and a drink at the Happy Hour. A cash bar will also be available. The program is open to the public, but the Historical Happy Hour is only for Associate Members and their guests.

How did the marriages to Benedict Arnold and Henry Knox change the lives and personal development of their brides, Peggy Shippen and Lucy Knox? Nancy Rubin Stuart’s talk reveals the contradictory paths two young women followed subsequent to their passionate marriages to patriotic men during the American Revolution and the early Federal era. Using historical correspondence and historical drawings and portraits, Ms. Stuart will shed light on how these defiant brides affected the course of the Revolution. Ms. Stuart is an award-winning author and journalist who specializes in women and social history.

Focusing on the text of the August 1855 letter Lincoln wrote to his friend Joshua Fry Speed, Elaine Grublin, MHS Head of Reader Services, will discuss Lincoln’s early thoughts on slavery in America and his reaction to the rise of the American (“Know-Nothing”) Party.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Notice Library & Exhibitions Open16 April 2013.Tuesday, all dayThe MHS library and exhibition galleries will be open regular business hours today. The ...

The MHS library and exhibition galleries will be open regular business hours today. The library will be open 9:00 AM to 7:45 PM. The galleries will be open 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. This evening's scheduled seminar has been canceled.

Rescheduled from March 19. This paper explores the paradox of bodybuilders such as Atlas espousing eugenics principles while highlighting their own allegedly innate weaknesses as a marketing strategy for their diet and exercise regimens. It also argues that both techniques functioned as assimilation strategies for the immigrant and ethnic bodybuilding community at a time when the U.S. was less than hospitable to foreigners.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Special Event Bus Trip to the Museum of World War II26 April 2013.Friday, 11:00AM - 5:00PMSpecial event for Members of the MHS Fund Paine through Adams CirclesThis special event is open to Members of the MHS Fund Paine through Adams Circles. Enjoy a special ...

This special event is open to Members of the MHS Fund Paine through Adams Circles. Enjoy a special lunch and behind-the-scenes tour of the Museum of World War II with Founder and Director Kenneth Rendell. The museum houses the most comprehensive collection of WWII artifacts on display anywhere in the world. A bus will leave from the MHS at 11 AM and return by 5 PM. Space is limited. RSVP required. Fee: $50. Part of the MHS Local Travel Series.

For more information or to register, contact Katy Capó at kcapo@masshist.org or 617-646-0518.

Public Program, Walking Tour Authors & Abolitionists28 April 2013.Sunday, 2:00PM - 4:30PMLocation: Concord, Mass.Jayne Gordon, Massachusetts Historical SocietySlavery was the great social and moral issue of the 19th century, and Concord was a hotbed of ...

Slavery was the great social and moral issue of the 19th century, and Concord was a hotbed of abolitionist sentiment. Residents Emerson, Thoreau, and the Alcotts confronted slavery head-on in their writings and actions, as indignation turned to outrage. This leisurely two-mile walking tour explores the involvement of these authors and their neighbors in antislavery efforts in Concord and beyond. It begins and ends at the Concord train depot (an easy ride out from Boston and Cambridge) and is coordinated with the Sunday train schedule. Walk leader Jayne Gordon, MHS Director of Education and Public Programs, is a resident of Concord who has worked at most of the town’s historic sites. She teaches the Concord history course required for all town guides.

This discussion will focus on two papers, “Honorable Citizens, Ethnic Militias in Chicago, 1855-1879,” by Mimi Cowan of Boston College, and "African American and Irish Political Coalitions in Boston, Massachusetts, 1881-1890,” by Millington Bergeson-Lockwood of George Mason University. Cowan’s paper highlights the ways in which participation in volunteer military groups sometimes helped immigrants to combat nativism and, at other times, fueled nativists’ concerns about foreigners. Bergeson-Lockwood’s paper identifies three areas where African Americans and Irish immigrants established coalitions and laid claim, not only to a historic resistance to oppression, but also to participation in the founding events of the United States.

This project examines the paintings of portraitists working within the eighteenth-century British Atlantic world, demonstrating the impact of mobility on artistic practice and portraiture on identity construction. Considering a network of about ten portraitists, the canvases they produce, and the travel of both individuals and images throughout the British Atlantic in the mid eighteenth century, this study identifies a shift in the construction of artistic communities as artists take to sea. By considering portraits and conversation pieces across the Atlantic rim, this project reveals visual convergences (in empire-wide visual conventions) and divergences (between local idioms in various port cities) that illustrate the development of regional identities within imperial conventions.

Author Talk, Public Program Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution1 May 2013.Wednesday, 6:00PM - 7:00PMLocation: Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St., BrooklineNathaniel PhilbrickNathaniel Philbrick, the bestselling author of In the Heart of the Sea and ...

Nathaniel Philbrick, the bestselling author of In the Heart of the Sea and Mayflower, brings his prodigious talents to the story of the first major battle of the American Revolution. Boston in 1775 is an island city occupied by British troops after a series of incendiary incidents by patriots who range from sober citizens to thuggish vigilantes. After the Boston Tea Party, British and American soldiers and Massachusetts residents have warily maneuvered around each other until 19 April, when violence finally erupts at Lexington and Concord. In June, however, with the city cut off from supplies by a British blockade and Patriot militia poised in siege, skirmishes give way to outright war in the Battle of Bunker Hill. It would be the bloodiest battle of the Revolution to come, and the point of no return for the rebellious colonists.

Nathaniel Philbrick is the New York Times bestselling author of National Book Award winner In the Heart of the Sea, Pulitzer Prize finalist Mayflower, Sea of Glory, and The Last Stand. He is also the author of Why Read Moby- Dick? and Away Off Shore. He lives on Nantucket.

Public Program, Exhibition The Three Lives of Anthony Burns3 May 2013.Friday, 2:00PM - 3:00PMExhibition SpotlightPeter Drummey, Massachusetts Historical SocietyThe rendition of Anthony Burns—his return from Boston to slavery in 1854—was a turning ...

The rendition of Anthony Burns—his return from Boston to slavery in 1854—was a turning point in the Abolitionist struggle. But who was Anthony Burns? A fugitive slave? A symbol of the antislavery cause in Boston? What happened to him after he was freed and his celebrity faded? We will explore the heroic, and tragic, life of Anthony Burns through documents on display at the Society.

Early American History Seminar Madison’s Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention7 May 2013.Tuesday, 5:15PM - 7:30PMMary Sarah Bilder, Boston College Law SchoolPauline Maier, MITMadison's Notes with his revisions remain the most prominent remnants of the Convention in ...

Madison's Notes with his revisions remain the most prominent remnants of the Convention in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. What does it mean to take seriously that Madison's notes on the Convention are notes? Two hundred and twenty-five years after Madison first wrote the Notes, changing technology makes it possible to revisit the manuscript. This paper will suggest that Madison revised his notes far more extensively than has been previously understood. The revised notes demonstrate that Madison's understanding of the Convention, the Constitution, and his own role changed dramatically between May 1787 and the end of the eighteenth century.

The wide lens of this talk will focus on recent restoration and interpretive efforts including Monticello's work spaces beneath the house, public rooms, and upper floors as well as Mulberry Row, the plantation's principal street. The discussion will also describe Monticello's free and enslaved community. Susan R. Stein is the longtime Richard Gilder Senior Curator and Vice President for Museum Programs.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

How did a fiery abolitionist senator and a genteel poet come together as the closest of friends? Presented as a dramatic reading of actual historic documents - including letters, journals, poetry, and speeches - this program will highlight the deep personal relationship shared between abolitionist politician Charles Sumner and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The reading takes listeners from the earliest friendship of these two men to their antislavery advocacy, from their personal triumphs and tragedies and into their final years, weaving through the events of the nation including Emancipation.

Stephen Puleo, author of The Caning: The Assault that Drove America to Civil War, will be on hand to provide commentary and sign copies of his book.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation on 1 January 1863, this exhibition features the pen Abraham Lincoln used to sign the document. Visitors can learn how the MHS acquired this extraordinary pen as well as view paintings, broadsides, engravings, and manuscripts that tell the story of how Boston celebrated Emancipation.

Exhibitionends Lincoln in Manuscript & Artifact24 May 2013.Friday, 10:00AM - 4:00PMMonday through Saturday from 10 AM to 4 PMView documents and artifacts related to Abraham Lincoln. Featured items include Lincoln's letter to ...

View documents and artifacts related to Abraham Lincoln. Featured items include Lincoln's letter to Joshua F. Speed explaining his evolving views on slavery as well as the casts of the life mask and hands of Lincoln made by Leonard Volk in the spring of 1860.

In the decades leading up to the Civil War, Boston became a center of the national antislavery movement, and in 1831 William Lloyd Garrison, "all on fire" for the cause, began publication of The Liberator, the country's leading abolitionist newspaper. There was strong resistance to the radical movement, however, not only in the slaveholding South, but among Northerners' as well. The exhibition features manuscripts, photographs, artifacts—including the imposing stone for The Liberator—and portraits related to the abolitionist movement in Boston.

Runaway slaves who fled to Union lines during the Civil War were known as “contrabands” because of their inclusion in the category of seizeable enemy property under the First and Second Confiscation Acts. The pervasive references to “contraband” in the press, on stage, and in political cartoons suggest that “contraband” became the primary representation of slavery and slaves during the Civil War, much in the way that “Uncle Tom” had in the 1850s. This talk will explore the ways in which contraband men and women enacted their own representations of their changing status and slave experience and through everyday performance in the contraband camps, challenging competing representations of race, gender, and slavery in the process.

Public Program Sounds of the Civil War29 May 2013.Wednesday, 6:00PM - 8:00PMBoston Saxophone QuartetSing along with the Boston Saxophone Quartet as we explore the music of the Civil War era. This ...

Sing along with the Boston Saxophone Quartet as we explore the music of the Civil War era. This program will feature familiar tunes from the 1860s that were sung around the parlor piano, as well as songs written specifically for the newest instrument of the era: the saxophone. The evening will include musical performances and historical commentary on the selected pieces. Members of the Boston Saxophone Quartet have performed with the Boston Pops and Boston Symphony Orchestra and leading Broadway theaters throughout New England. Conductor and instrumentalist Peter Cokkinias, Professor at neighboring Berklee College of Music, has served for over 30 seasons as Music Director/Conductor of the Metrowest Symphony Orchestra; has conducted the Boston Ballet and Boston Pops; and has performed with the Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Ballet, and Cincinnati, Hartford, Pittsburgh, and Boston Symphony Orchestras.

Join us at this two-day workshop as we explore eighteenth-century letters from the collections of the Revere House and the Massachusetts Historical Society! Teachers will learn more about the importance of letters as a communication tool in the eighteenth century, as well as their importance as historical sources today. Participants can also try their hand at writing letters using eighteenth-century technology and conventions and transcribing letters written by members of the Revere and Adams families.

Participants can earn 12 PDPs by attending both days of the course and writing one lesson plan, or One Graduate Credit (equal to 22.5 PDPs) from Framingham State (credit pending) by paying an additional fee of $75 and completing a more extensive project.

Registration Fee: $80. Includes course readings, morning snacks and one lunch. To Register: Please complete this registration form and send it with your check (payable to the Revere House) to:19 North Sq., Boston, MA 02113.

Morning Sessions:Letter-writing in the 18th century: Who wrote letters and why?

Reading Between the Lines: What do surviving Revere letters tell us about the family? Small groups work together to note information gleaned from original and transcribed Revere family letters. A short tour of the Revere House is included to see a few Revere written items on display. Staff reveal the recent discovery of a missing Revere letter, how it came to light and how it has since been conserved.

Afternoon Sessions:Your turn: Try your hand at transcribing eighteenthcentury letters from the Society’s collections. After working in small groups, participants can share their own challenges and successes.

A Life in Letters: What does the correspondence between Abigail Adams and her husband and sisters tell us about life in the late eighteenth century? Participants will examine a series of letters in order to create a sketch of Adams family life at the time of the American Revolution.

Early American History SeminarBlood in the Water: The Pequot War, Kieft’s War, and the Contagion of Coastal Violence5 March 2013.Tuesday, 5:15PM - 7:30PMAndrew Lipman, Syracuse UniversityComment: Katherine Grandjean, Wellesley College

Recently scholars have pointed out links between the 1636-1637 Anglo-Indian conflict known as the "Pequot War" and the 1643-1645 Dutch-Indian conflict known as "Kieft's War." This paper unpacks the larger historiographic implications of seeing the two wars as tandem events, and viewing New England and New Netherland as part of a single contested region.

For much of the 20th century, Charles E. Wyzanski, Jr., the presenter's father, engaged the leading individuals and intellectuals of his time and left his imprint on a surprising number of them. While a first-year law student in 1927, Wyzanski received a handwritten note from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, in which Holmes hoped that whenever Wyzanski's work "seemed to present only mean details, he might realize that every detail has the mystery of the universe behind it and keep up [his] heart with undying faith." Wyzanski did just that until his death in 1986, influencing to a remarkable degree the legal, political, intellectual, and moral life of his times.

Conversation, Public ProgramWalking the Great Beach with a Volume of the MHS "Collections" in Hand6 March 2013.Wednesday, 6:00PM - 7:30PMPre-Talk Reception at 5:30 PMPeter Drummey, Massachusetts Historical SocietyPart of "The Object of History" series

In Cape Cod, Henry David Thoreau describes using an early MHS publication as a sort of antiquarian travel guide -- a way of looking back on the landscape he traversed as it had been described almost 50 years earlier. What did the founders of the MHS set out to print and what have later generations made of our early publications?

The Object of HistoryA series of chats with MHS Librarian Peter Drummey about what documents and artifacts from the collections can tell us about the characters, events, and issues of the past, as well as the role of MHS in documenting the rich history of our state and nation.

Join us at this two-day workshop as we explore eighteenth-century letters from the collections of the Revere House and the Massachusetts Historical Society! Teachers will learn more about the importance of letters as a communication tool in the eighteenth century, as well as their importance as historical sources today. Participants can also try their hand at writing letters using eighteenth-century technology and conventions and transcribing letters written by members of the Revere and Adams families.

Participants can earn 12 PDPs by attending both days of the course and writing one lesson plan, or One Graduate Credit (equal to 22.5 PDPs) from Framingham State (credit pending) by paying an additional fee of $75 and completing a more extensive project.

Registration Fee: $80. Includes course readings, morning snacks and one lunch. To Register: Please complete this registration form and send it with your check (payable to the Revere House) to:19 North Sq., Boston, MA 02113 by 31 January 2013.

Morning Sessions:Letter-writing in the 18th century: Who wrote letters and why?

Reading Between the Lines: What do surviving Revere letters tell us about the family? Small groups work together to note information gleaned from original and transcribed Revere family letters. A short tour of the Revere House is included to see a few Revere written items on display. Staff reveal the recent discovery of a missing Revere letter, how it came to light and how it has since been conserved.

Afternoon Sessions:Your turn: Try your hand at transcribing eighteenthcentury letters from the Society’s collections. After working in small groups, participants can share their own challenges and successes.

A Life in Letters: What does the correspondence between Abigail Adams and her husband and sisters tell us about life in the late eighteenth century? Participants will examine a series of letters in order to create a sketch of Adams family life at the time of the American Revolution.

In 1909, Elizabeth Lowell Putnam formed the Massachusetts Milk Consumers’ Association with the intent of tackling what was then known as “the milk question.” Using the MMCA as a case study, this paper argues that Boston milk reformers’ understanding of the new science of bacteriology fundamentally shaped their perceptions of the relationship between the rural environment, the food city dwellers consumed, and the health of human bodies.

Author Talk, Public ProgramAn Evening with Margaret Fuller in Italy13 March 2013.Wednesday, 6:00PM - 7:30PMThis event is SOLD OUT.Megan Marshall and NewpoliPart of the "New Books/New Looks: Revisiting the Past" series

Prize-winning author and MHS Fellow Megan Marshall will read from Margaret Fuller: A New American Life, her biography of the 19th-century heroine who spent her last years in Rome and Florence as a war correspondent covering the early stages of Italy’s Risorgimento. How should we remember this period in Fuller’s life, particularly given the scandal of her love affair with Giovanni Ossoli? Folk ensemble Newpoli will conjure the vibrant music that Fuller came to love as emblematic of Italy. Ms. Marshall is the author of The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism, winner of the Francis Parkman Prize, the Mark Lynton History Prize, the Massachusetts Book Award, and a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Newpoli performs southern Italian folk music from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.

Curator of Art Anne Bentley will examine the nature and use of our set of William Lloyd Garrison’s banners, displayed circa 1840s to 1850s in local fairs and demonstrations sponsored by the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.

MHS TourMHS Tour: The History and Collections of the MHS16 March 2013.Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:30AM

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

This paper explores the paradox of bodybuilders such as Atlas espousing eugenics principles while highlighting their own allegedly innate weaknesses as a marketing strategy for their diet and exercise regimens. It also argues that both techniques functioned as assimilation strategies for the immigrant and ethnic bodybuilding community at a time when the U.S. was less than hospitable to foreigners.

Biography SeminarSubjects in Context: The Role of Place in the Writing of Biography21 March 2013.Thursday, 5:30PM - 7:30PMCarla Kaplan, Diane McWhorter, and Lois RudnickModerator: Carol Bundy

Join us for a panel discussion featuring Carla Kaplan, who will talk about her forthcoming book on white women in the Harlem Renaissance; Diane McWhorter, who will discuss the civil rights struggle and the growth of the military-industrial complex in postwar Alabama; and Lois Rudnick, who will reflect on Mabel Dodge Luhan and her circle of friends in New Mexico.

MHS TourMHS Tour: The History and Collections of the MHS23 March 2013.Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:30AM

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Public Program, Author TalkWriting with Scissors: 19th-Century Activists & Their Scrapbooks27 March 2013.Wednesday, 6:00PM - 7:30PMPre-Talk Reception at 5:30 PMEllen Gruber Garvey, New Jersey City UniversityPart of the "New Books/New Looks: Revisiting the Past" series

Men and women 150 years ago grappled with information overload by making scrapbooks—the ancestors of Google and blogging. Mark Twain and Susan B. Anthony, abolitionists and Confederates, African American janitors and farmwomen cut out and pasted down their reading. Professor Garvey will discuss these various perspectives, covered in her recent book Writing with Scissors, including the findings she uncovered while doing research at the MHS. All scrapbook makers passed along their understanding that the press was not a simple record, but a set of voices and conversations.

MHS TourMHS Tour: The History and Collections of the MHS30 March 2013.Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:30AM

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Early American History SeminarMaking Saltpetre for the Continental Army: How Americans Understood the Environment During the War of Independence2 April 2013.Tuesday, 5:15PM - 7:30PMDavid Hsiung, Juniata CollegeComment: Rob Martello, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

This case study focuses on how Americans understood the workings of the natural world as they imperfectly made gunpowder for the Continental Army. It argues that paying attention to the interactions between humans and the natural environment leads to a richer understanding of the war, and that modern American attitudes towards the environment have important roots in the Revolutionary period.

Brown BagMourning Lincoln: Shock, Sorrow, Anger, and Glee in the Archives3 April 2013.Wednesday, 12:00PM - 1:00PMMartha Hodes, New York University

Reading private letters and journals, this book-in-progress investigates personal responses to Lincoln’s assassination, encompassing Union and Confederate, black and white, men and women, soldiers and civilians, rich and poor, the well-known and the unknown. What can these responses to such a cataclysmic event tell us about the aftermath of the Civil War, and what can we learn about understanding a transformative event on a human scale?

ConferenceMassachusetts and the Civil War: the Commonwealth and National Disunion4 April 2013 to 6 April 2013

Prof. Stauffer’s lecture on Thursday evening will open a conference that will consider almost every major aspect of Massachusetts’ participation in the war: reform activities and the origins of the war; military life; the war, politics, and the economy; slavery and emancipation; and how the citizens of Massachusetts came to terms with the consequences of the conflict. It will feature established scholars as well as up-and-coming historians who will tackle new areas of emphasis, including the radical intellectual tradition, health and the environment, and the memory of the war.

Conference papers will be made available in advance to those who preregister. In six sessions on Friday and Saturday, panelists and commentators will offer brief remarks; a discussion with the audience will follow. Registration fee required to attend sessions. Registration available in late 2012. For information, contact kviens@masshist.org.

Public ProgramMassachusetts and the Civil War in Black and White: The Commonwealth’s Role in Secession, Emancipation, and Reconstruction4 April 2013.Thursday, 6:00PM - 7:00PMJohn Stauffer, Harvard University

Prof. Stauffer is a member of Harvard’s English Department and the chair of the university’s graduate program on the History of American Civilization. He will speak on the contribution of the Bay State’s black and white abolitionists and political leaders to secession, freedom, and equality under the law. He will also discuss briefly how the state responded to the "counter-Revolution" that stripped away these new rights after Reconstruction. This lecture and the reception that will follow will be free and open to the public. This program is also the keynote address for the MHS conference Massachusetts and the Civil War: The Commonwealth and National Disunion.

Environmental History Seminar"Good Meat & Good Skins": Winter Game and Political Ecology on the Maritime Peninsula, 1620-17279 April 2013.Tuesday, 5:15PM - 7:30PMThomas Wickman, Trinity CollegeComment: Neal Salisbury, Smith College

The search for a heterogeneous menu of game animals allowed northeastern Indians a flexible pattern of winter mobility. After 1704, however, English soldiers patrolled Indians’ winter hunting grounds, interfering with native reliance on wild animals. Political ecology—how power affects people’s access to routes and resources—mattered more than environmental degradation to the fate of the winter hunt on the Maritime Peninsula.

Children aged seven to seventeen made up a significant portion of the American military until recently. This project, co-authored with Rebecca Jo Plant (UCSD), aims to study the relationship between childhood and militarism in American history, tracing debates over the enlistment of minors from the Revolution to the modern era and analyzing shifting representations and experiences of child soldiers.

Public Program, Author TalkDefiant Brides of the American Revolution10 April 2013.Wednesday, 6:00PM - 7:30PMPre-Talk Reception at 5:30 PMNancy Rubin StuartPart of the "New Books/New Looks: Revisiting the Past" series

How did the marriages to Benedict Arnold and Henry Knox change the lives and personal development of their brides, Peggy Shippen and Lucy Knox? Nancy Rubin Stuart’s talk reveals the contradictory paths two young women followed subsequent to their passionate marriages to patriotic men during the American Revolution and the early Federal era. Using historical correspondence and historical drawings and portraits, Ms. Stuart will shed light on how these defiant brides affected the course of the Revolution. Ms. Stuart is an award-winning author and journalist who specializes in women and social history.

Special Event, Member EventHistorical Happy Hour10 April 2013.Wednesday, 7:30PM - 8:30PMSpecial event for MHS Associate Members

MHS Associate Members are invited to the second Historical Happy Hour. Following the talk by Nancy Rubin Stuart, we will continue the conversation while enjoying a cocktail at The Back Bay Social Club located at 867 Boylston Street.

Associate Members and their guests will receive priority admission to the program as well as complimentary appetizers and a drink at the Happy Hour. A cash bar will also be available. The program is open to the public, but the Historical Happy Hour is only for Associate Members and their guests.

How did the marriages to Benedict Arnold and Henry Knox change the lives and personal development of their brides, Peggy Shippen and Lucy Knox? Nancy Rubin Stuart’s talk reveals the contradictory paths two young women followed subsequent to their passionate marriages to patriotic men during the American Revolution and the early Federal era. Using historical correspondence and historical drawings and portraits, Ms. Stuart will shed light on how these defiant brides affected the course of the Revolution. Ms. Stuart is an award-winning author and journalist who specializes in women and social history.

Focusing on the text of the August 1855 letter Lincoln wrote to his friend Joshua Fry Speed, Elaine Grublin, MHS Head of Reader Services, will discuss Lincoln’s early thoughts on slavery in America and his reaction to the rise of the American (“Know-Nothing”) Party.

MHS TourMHS Tour: The History and Collections of the MHS13 April 2013.Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:30AM

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

The MHS library and exhibition galleries will be open regular business hours today. The library will be open 9:00 AM to 7:45 PM. The galleries will be open 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. This evening's scheduled seminar has been canceled.

Rescheduled from March 19. This paper explores the paradox of bodybuilders such as Atlas espousing eugenics principles while highlighting their own allegedly innate weaknesses as a marketing strategy for their diet and exercise regimens. It also argues that both techniques functioned as assimilation strategies for the immigrant and ethnic bodybuilding community at a time when the U.S. was less than hospitable to foreigners.

History of Women and Gender SeminarPanel Discussion: The Big Tent of U.S. Women’s and Gender History: A State of the Field18 April 2013.Thursday, 5:30PM - 7:30PMEssayists: Cornelia H. Dayton, University of Connecticut, and Lisa Levenstein, University of North Carolina at GreensboroPanelists: Crystal Feimster, Yale University, Carol F. Karlsen, University of Michigan, and Betsy More, Harvard Universityclose

MHS TourMHS Tour: The History and Collections of the MHS20 April 2013.Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:30AM

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Special EventBus Trip to the Museum of World War II26 April 2013.Friday, 11:00AM - 5:00PMSpecial event for Members of the MHS Fund Paine through Adams Circles

This special event is open to Members of the MHS Fund Paine through Adams Circles. Enjoy a special lunch and behind-the-scenes tour of the Museum of World War II with Founder and Director Kenneth Rendell. The museum houses the most comprehensive collection of WWII artifacts on display anywhere in the world. A bus will leave from the MHS at 11 AM and return by 5 PM. Space is limited. RSVP required. Fee: $50. Part of the MHS Local Travel Series.

For more information or to register, contact Katy Capó at kcapo@masshist.org or 617-646-0518.

Slavery was the great social and moral issue of the 19th century, and Concord was a hotbed of abolitionist sentiment. Residents Emerson, Thoreau, and the Alcotts confronted slavery head-on in their writings and actions, as indignation turned to outrage. This leisurely two-mile walking tour explores the involvement of these authors and their neighbors in antislavery efforts in Concord and beyond. It begins and ends at the Concord train depot (an easy ride out from Boston and Cambridge) and is coordinated with the Sunday train schedule. Walk leader Jayne Gordon, MHS Director of Education and Public Programs, is a resident of Concord who has worked at most of the town’s historic sites. She teaches the Concord history course required for all town guides.

This discussion will focus on two papers, “Honorable Citizens, Ethnic Militias in Chicago, 1855-1879,” by Mimi Cowan of Boston College, and "African American and Irish Political Coalitions in Boston, Massachusetts, 1881-1890,” by Millington Bergeson-Lockwood of George Mason University. Cowan’s paper highlights the ways in which participation in volunteer military groups sometimes helped immigrants to combat nativism and, at other times, fueled nativists’ concerns about foreigners. Bergeson-Lockwood’s paper identifies three areas where African Americans and Irish immigrants established coalitions and laid claim, not only to a historic resistance to oppression, but also to participation in the founding events of the United States.

This project examines the paintings of portraitists working within the eighteenth-century British Atlantic world, demonstrating the impact of mobility on artistic practice and portraiture on identity construction. Considering a network of about ten portraitists, the canvases they produce, and the travel of both individuals and images throughout the British Atlantic in the mid eighteenth century, this study identifies a shift in the construction of artistic communities as artists take to sea. By considering portraits and conversation pieces across the Atlantic rim, this project reveals visual convergences (in empire-wide visual conventions) and divergences (between local idioms in various port cities) that illustrate the development of regional identities within imperial conventions.

Nathaniel Philbrick, the bestselling author of In the Heart of the Sea and Mayflower, brings his prodigious talents to the story of the first major battle of the American Revolution. Boston in 1775 is an island city occupied by British troops after a series of incendiary incidents by patriots who range from sober citizens to thuggish vigilantes. After the Boston Tea Party, British and American soldiers and Massachusetts residents have warily maneuvered around each other until 19 April, when violence finally erupts at Lexington and Concord. In June, however, with the city cut off from supplies by a British blockade and Patriot militia poised in siege, skirmishes give way to outright war in the Battle of Bunker Hill. It would be the bloodiest battle of the Revolution to come, and the point of no return for the rebellious colonists.

Nathaniel Philbrick is the New York Times bestselling author of National Book Award winner In the Heart of the Sea, Pulitzer Prize finalist Mayflower, Sea of Glory, and The Last Stand. He is also the author of Why Read Moby- Dick? and Away Off Shore. He lives on Nantucket.

The rendition of Anthony Burns—his return from Boston to slavery in 1854—was a turning point in the Abolitionist struggle. But who was Anthony Burns? A fugitive slave? A symbol of the antislavery cause in Boston? What happened to him after he was freed and his celebrity faded? We will explore the heroic, and tragic, life of Anthony Burns through documents on display at the Society.

Early American History SeminarMadison’s Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention7 May 2013.Tuesday, 5:15PM - 7:30PMMary Sarah Bilder, Boston College Law SchoolPauline Maier, MIT

Madison's Notes with his revisions remain the most prominent remnants of the Convention in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. What does it mean to take seriously that Madison's notes on the Convention are notes? Two hundred and twenty-five years after Madison first wrote the Notes, changing technology makes it possible to revisit the manuscript. This paper will suggest that Madison revised his notes far more extensively than has been previously understood. The revised notes demonstrate that Madison's understanding of the Convention, the Constitution, and his own role changed dramatically between May 1787 and the end of the eighteenth century.

The wide lens of this talk will focus on recent restoration and interpretive efforts including Monticello's work spaces beneath the house, public rooms, and upper floors as well as Mulberry Row, the plantation's principal street. The discussion will also describe Monticello's free and enslaved community. Susan R. Stein is the longtime Richard Gilder Senior Curator and Vice President for Museum Programs.

MHS TourMHS Tour: The History and Collections of the MHS11 May 2013.Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:30AM

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

How did a fiery abolitionist senator and a genteel poet come together as the closest of friends? Presented as a dramatic reading of actual historic documents - including letters, journals, poetry, and speeches - this program will highlight the deep personal relationship shared between abolitionist politician Charles Sumner and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The reading takes listeners from the earliest friendship of these two men to their antislavery advocacy, from their personal triumphs and tragedies and into their final years, weaving through the events of the nation including Emancipation.

Stephen Puleo, author of The Caning: The Assault that Drove America to Civil War, will be on hand to provide commentary and sign copies of his book.

MHS TourMHS Tour: The History and Collections of the MHS18 May 2013.Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:30AM

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation on 1 January 1863, this exhibition features the pen Abraham Lincoln used to sign the document. Visitors can learn how the MHS acquired this extraordinary pen as well as view paintings, broadsides, engravings, and manuscripts that tell the story of how Boston celebrated Emancipation.

View documents and artifacts related to Abraham Lincoln. Featured items include Lincoln's letter to Joshua F. Speed explaining his evolving views on slavery as well as the casts of the life mask and hands of Lincoln made by Leonard Volk in the spring of 1860.

In the decades leading up to the Civil War, Boston became a center of the national antislavery movement, and in 1831 William Lloyd Garrison, "all on fire" for the cause, began publication of The Liberator, the country's leading abolitionist newspaper. There was strong resistance to the radical movement, however, not only in the slaveholding South, but among Northerners' as well. The exhibition features manuscripts, photographs, artifacts—including the imposing stone for The Liberator—and portraits related to the abolitionist movement in Boston.

Brown BagConfiscated Voices: Representing the Slave Experience during the American Civil War29 May 2013.Wednesday, 12:00PM - 1:00PMHeather Cooper, University of Iowa

Runaway slaves who fled to Union lines during the Civil War were known as “contrabands” because of their inclusion in the category of seizeable enemy property under the First and Second Confiscation Acts. The pervasive references to “contraband” in the press, on stage, and in political cartoons suggest that “contraband” became the primary representation of slavery and slaves during the Civil War, much in the way that “Uncle Tom” had in the 1850s. This talk will explore the ways in which contraband men and women enacted their own representations of their changing status and slave experience and through everyday performance in the contraband camps, challenging competing representations of race, gender, and slavery in the process.

Public ProgramSounds of the Civil War29 May 2013.Wednesday, 6:00PM - 8:00PMBoston Saxophone Quartet

Sing along with the Boston Saxophone Quartet as we explore the music of the Civil War era. This program will feature familiar tunes from the 1860s that were sung around the parlor piano, as well as songs written specifically for the newest instrument of the era: the saxophone. The evening will include musical performances and historical commentary on the selected pieces. Members of the Boston Saxophone Quartet have performed with the Boston Pops and Boston Symphony Orchestra and leading Broadway theaters throughout New England. Conductor and instrumentalist Peter Cokkinias, Professor at neighboring Berklee College of Music, has served for over 30 seasons as Music Director/Conductor of the Metrowest Symphony Orchestra; has conducted the Boston Ballet and Boston Pops; and has performed with the Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Ballet, and Cincinnati, Hartford, Pittsburgh, and Boston Symphony Orchestras.